Monday, December 22, 2014

This
time a bit longer visit. We stayed five days. We made another HelpX
but this time it was totally negative experience. We run away as soon
as possible, also weather was bad, rainy, windy.. So the photos are
just from last evening when the weather was better.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Tasmania's most famous national park. Full of lakes and mountains. Place where
one of the worlds “top ten” tracks starts. The Overland Trek.
Simply its a stunning nature. We spent three days there and made some
best treks ever.

Friday, December 12, 2014

This
was a bit different HelpX experience than before. We stayed with Tim
and Helen in their farm house in Sheffield. Tim and Helen have 8
kids, six from them still at home and home educated. To cook a
morning coffee you have to set a fire on wood in
oven. And just to clean dishes take about an hour. But we had
enough time to explore town and surroundings and even to make one day
trek to nearby mountain.

Saturday, December 6, 2014

This
small island south of Australia is a bit bigger than Czech Republic.
Tasmania is known mainly because of the unique nature, there is huge
amount of national parks and some of the world best treks.
Australians are kiding from Tasmanians. They saying that Tasmanians
has two heads (that they are inbreeded). We dont agree, we havent
seen anyone with two heads and we met just nice, friendly and
interesting people. We stayed two weeks. We traveled in a rented car
for a while, hitch hike the rest, we did awesome couchsurfing and
good helpX there. Also we made some of the best hiking and we saw
some new animals.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Our
another destination is Tasmania, but to go there we needed to go to
Melbourne first. Again its more than 500km long trip so we stop on the half of the way in Barnsdale for two nights. It's starting to be boring
but I have to say it again.. Awesome experience with couchsurfing.
Plenty of animals. Koalas and Echidnas this time. Good and funny hitchhiking and in the end one day in
Melbourne.

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Mallacoota
is small village in the most south-eastern corner of Australia. There
is a huge system of lakes and the bush around is an national park. We
stayed two weeks helping to local family with three lovely daughters. There was plenty of time for bike trips, beach activities and even fishing..

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Our
next helpX is Mallacoota small town in the very south-eastern tip of Australia.
It's some 600km so we split the way into few days. On the way we met some old friends, had our first experience with bushfires. We met a lot of Ozzies (Australians) when couchsurfing and hitchhiking.

Friday, November 14, 2014

This
time about the national park and trekking in Blue Mountains. We had four days off and a
lot of free afternoons and Anna, our HelpX host took us for some
trips by car to spot some of Australia animals.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

National Park near Sydney. We stayed here almost two weeks so we had plenty of rime to explore the beautiful nature and wildlife. We made few treks and spotted plenty of wildlife including the most dangerous one. It was also our first HelpX experience, so we worked a bit.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

8
hour long flight for less than 90euro and we are 6264Km south in a
way different world. No more annoying taxi drivers and touts, no more
rice for breakfast and no more hotels for 5EUR for room for night.
Hostel in Sydney cost 30eur per person so this will require a bit
more planning...The
first thing we noticed is a mix of cultures and styles. Each
person on the street is different and has different style. Comparing
to Asia it's also quite quiet and of course much cleaner. But best
are the Sydney beaches, right in the city with free electric grills
and plenty of relaxed people.. It was maybe just because of the
contrast after Asia, but we fall in love with Sydney in the first
day.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

There
is 7107 islands in Philippines. All locals tell you which island is
the best and where you should go. But the also told us. Do not go to
Siquijor”. The reason is not terrorism and kidnapping (still
popular way of earning money for some Muslim separatists on south of
Philippines) The reason is Black Magic and Witches. What we found was
slightly different, beautiful beaches, waterfalls, another very
interesting couchsurfing and parties again.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Dumaguete
is one of few pleasant cites in Philipines. Nice university town with
waterside promenade. Accidentally, there was another festival and
accidentally we had another cool couch surfing. Our host Ivan is a
really nice girl with soul of mermaid and boys body. Ivan became one of our favorite couchsurfing hosts and we had a lot of fun together with her friends and another couchsurfers.

Friday, October 24, 2014

To
go there might be an adventure. but ones there, it's just like in
paradise. Accommodation in a bamboo cottages right on a beautiful
Sugar Beach. It's maybe what Boracay was 30 years ago. Empty beach
and just few simple resorts. Hammocks, sun, beach volleyball, sunsets
all on the empty empty beach.

Monday, October 20, 2014

MassKara
is one of the Filipino biggest festivals. It's Rio rhythm, Venice
masks and Asian colors in the city of smiles. We spent three days
couchsurfing, partying and observing this unique parade. Its our
first party after five months.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

It's
small island with the perfect beach. Just like from postcard.. White
sand, blue and green water, palms and small boats with blue sails.
But also one of the most popular places in Philippines. We were
afraid it will look like Bali but luckily the tourist season does not
start yet and the beach wasn’t crowded.

Friday, October 10, 2014

After
mountains it's time for some seaside. This National Park is not too
promoted by guidebooks and not too many people is going here. It's
really hundred island. We wanted to camp on some of them but we end
up just on a day trip hooping from island to island.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Caves
can be sometimes too dark and a bit scary. Cemeteries can also be a
bit creepy. And is Sagada there are hundreds of coffins in a cave.
Unburied, some are broken and human bones just falling out of them.
It was a rainy day, it was slowly getting dark and there were no
another people around, well no alive people...

Monday, October 6, 2014

Beautiful
and impressive landscape created by human. Some terraces here are
2000 years old. It's a UNESCO site but it can be very quiet if you walk a bit further. And we went three days further right in between and on the terraces. We slept in the smallest villages and even if the
weather wasn’t best and people wasn't so friendly like in Manila
this was one of the best treks ever.

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Just
after our plane landed through the gray cloud of smog we quickly
realized we are in totally different world. Muezzin from mosques was
changed by bells from church. It's good because it also means no more
crazy taxes for alcohol. Pork is everywhere, not only in strange
Chinese dishes. But in the other side.. Manila is knows by serious
criminality problem which means we just left our hitch hiking
paradise and we are coming back to public transport. First impression
is a bit like Latin American. All the chaos, Spanish streets names,
colorful Jeepneys and tricycles. Just a totally different Asia.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Finally
we saw the red people from forest. Orang Utans. We visited national
park Kubah we camp in Matang Wildlife Reserve which was just like to
sleep in ZOO. And empty ZOO just with animals can became a bit creepy
at night.

Friday, September 26, 2014

This
is something for wildlife lovers. Oldest national park in Borneo
reachable only by boat. We saw more big animals here than anywhere
else. Wild Boars, Macaques, deadly Snakes, big Spiders, climbing
fishes ,but mainly quite big, unique and Borneo endemic Proboscis
Monkeys and also Flying Lemur, animal we never heard about before we
saw it. And what's best You can really see them in nature.. and we
have a lot of nice photos...

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Capital
of Sarawak and very nice surprise. Modern city with a beautiful
riverside promenade. Kuching is an ideal base to explore national
parks in southwest Sarawak. We stayed four nights couchsurfing and
later few more nights in hostel. We made nice one day trip to Dumai
to climb Mouth Santubonk and to Semenggoh to see Orang-Utans.

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Another
must to see and amazing tourist site. National Park with some of the world
biggest caves. Mulu is in the middle of Borneo jungle. With other
world it's not connected by road so the only way there is by plane or
boat. It's a place for some excellent jungle trekking and animal
watching. And its surprisingly well organized.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Mount
Kinabalu, best trek ever, or just an overpriced hill where you wait
in queue to make a summit photo??? The
highest peak of Malaysia. And if we don’t count Himalayas in north
of Myanmar and if Papua is already part of Oceania. Kinabalu is the
highest peak of all southeast Asia. It's 4095 meters just few tens of
kilometers next to seaside and it's a pretty impressive mountains.
Everyone we met says it's the absolute must in Borneo and the best
trek ever and most beautiful mountain in their lives. In the other side some climbers pages says its not challenging enough and horribly overpriced. Both is right a bit and really the hardest part is to be aloud to go there and not to ruin the
budget.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Full
name of this small sultanate "Brunei Durusalam" means "Abode of Peace" and it's quite
unique place. There are two quite important people in this country.
First one is sultan. There is a lot of oil under this country and
this oil is basically his. This makes him the richest man on earth.
His palace is 4 times bigger than Buckingham and has 257 bathrooms.
He has about 7000 cars including 452 Ferrari. Unfortunately he is not
member of Couchsurfing. The second important person in Brunei is
Karen. Her palace has 254 bathrooms less, and she has just two cars
and its not Ferrari. But in difference of sultan she is on
Couchsurfing and thanks to her we can say we really like Brunei.

Friday, August 29, 2014

Labuan
is an island near Malaysian Borneo, there is an important harbor but
for tourists it is usually just stopover on the way to Brunei. All
Labuan is also one big duty-free zone. Which means the price of beer
there is about 3 times cheaper than in rest of Malaysia. So after
long abstinence and with a vision of Malaysian Las Vegas we planed to
stay there three nights.. Well, we shouldn’t.

Friday, August 22, 2014

So
we are in Borneo, Not in plan but not bad. world third biggest island
cowered by rainforest and mountains. To many places here the only
access is by plane or by rivers. Hopefully we will see some
orangutans here, climb some 4000m high mountain and do some good
Jungle trekking. To make it more adventurous, soon after our arrival,
Michal lost our guidebook.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

This one
week on Bali was much different from our previous traveling. Not because Bali is
the only Hindu island in Indonesia. Not because of thousands of
tourists here, but because of just the very special tourist who spent two
days flying from Europe all the way to here for short one week holidays and to visit us.

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Yes
we are jumping from place to place fast and without plan. We landed on
Bali but we had an important meeting on here one week later so we
spent just one night here in the most touristic party place – Kuta.
Nice thing about Kuta is that you can simply walk from airport to
center in about half an hour.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Indonesia's
10 million capital (30milion metro area). The biggest of southeast
Asia mega cities. And so different from those we saw before. Except
of high traffic there not so much to see. But involuntary we spent
three nights. We have another very positive experience from
couchsurfing and probably also thanks to the local holidays it was a
bit unusual Jakarta. And in the end we like this city.

Saturday, July 26, 2014

small
but busy dusty town near to two claimable volcanoes. The bigger one
unfortunately erupted a year ago and again two weeks ago and it's
forbidden to climb up now. So the small one, 2212m
high Mt Sibayak has to be enough for us.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Lake
Toba is worlds biggest volcano crater lake. It's big like Belgium and
we went to the Singapore size island in the middle of this lake. Cheapest place we have been and also one of nieces. And a motorbike trip around Island was also perfect.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Every
guide and all internet forums and blog do not recommend to go to
Sumatra by boat. Flights here are very cheap. But if you fly you miss
the magic of traveling by boat and even better overnight bus. This
was real traveling again, not just a holiday.

Monday, July 21, 2014

We
came to Melaka just because of ferry to Sumatra. But we were very
surprised. So laid back European like town we didn't expected. Its
an UNESCO word heritage site and weekend markets in Melaka are a
magnet for tourists. We arrived on Friday so we get all from Melaka.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Small island country with big ultra modern city. Full of skyscrapers, modern
architecture, sky trains and wide highways. Mix of cultures here is
visible specially in food-courts where you can get everything from
everywhere. Singapore is also more than twice expensive than
Malaysia so we try couchsurfing again. Two requests, two positive
answers and two very nice couples who hosted us.

Monday, July 14, 2014

Our
next destination was Singapore. But to go there had to go firstly to
Mersing the port town, and to Johor Bahru called JB where we found
our first Asian couchsurfing host - Beckham successful young salesman
who made this Malaysian boarder city which most tourists just pass on
the way to Singapore good enough to have own post.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Finally
seaside, beach and relax.. So chalet right on the beach, cold beer
and good food. But we choose a bit bigger island with some jungle.
And actually we haven’t seen so many big wild animals anywhere
else.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Taman
Negara in Malay means national park and it's a name of national park.
Big one, with some big wild animals like Tapirs, Gibbons, Wild Boars
and also few last wild elephants and tigers. It's another place for
jungle trekking. Trekking on ground and also 40 meters high in canopy
of trees. We did all, without guide of course, we tried to spent a
night outside in jungle and we were much closer to some animals than
we wished. And there was blood.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Beautiful
mountains. Known mainly because of eternal spring weather and
temperatures only around 25degrees Celsius. But also for really
interesting jungle treks. So something for us. Get healthy and hurray
to jungle.

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Kuala
Lumpur, called “the KL”, cybercity with huge airports, monorails
and some of the highest skyscrapers on the world. But you can just walk
here. You don’t need sky-walks to cross the street all sights are
in walking distance. End everything seems to be well organized.

Monday, June 23, 2014

We
had no big expectation before coming to Bago, we stopped here more
less just because we still had some time and Bago is on the way to
Yangon. But in the end we stayed two nights. Way by train in ordinary
class was long but ok. Hotel was cheap and nice. Well we had to
change the room for the second night because Michal destroyed
fluorescent tube when hunting for mosquito and there was sharps
everywhere. And in the second room there was a biggest cockroach we
ever seen, but still it was the best value hotel we had in Myanmar
(Named San Francisco). And the staff was very helpful. Women from
reception gave us detailed information how to enter each monument
without paying 10USD government entrance fee. very useful.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Kyaiktiyo
Pagoda on Golden Rock is one of the hollies place in Myanmar. Its a
small pagoda on a huge balancing rock covered by gold leafs
situated on the top of mountain. There are two ways up, by truck or
trekking...

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Hpa
An is capital of Kiyan state close to Thai boarder. Most of the state
is closed for foreigners. From Mawlamyine you can go two hours by bus
or five hours by boat. Boat is slower and more expensive but we like
boats. Near Hpa An are also some caves, so this would be also quite adventurous... click read more.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

We
arrived to Yangon bus terminal at around 4AM, we just change the bus
and continue another 8 hours to Mawlamyne. So pretty long journey
from Bagan almost 18hours. It was rainy almost all way so to be in bus wasn'tso
bad. Mawlamyine is Myanmar's third city but looks small. There is
couple of things to see around like the world biggest reclining
Buddha.. and to go to him, can easily changed into unexpected and adventurous trek.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

The
top of Myanmar. Most famous and also most visited place in country.
And probably one of the most spiritual and magnificent place on
world. Which can be compared to Angkhor, Petra, Piramides or Taj
Mahal. Huge city with about 4000 temples from 12th century. Do we
like it? Yes, a lot! Click read more.